KORG Monotron Delay Analog Ribbon Synthesizer

The Korg Monotron Delay is a very immediate and fun sound design machine and processor. What's especially unique about it is that the filter comes after the delay. You can process incoming audio or the oscillator and control the tone of the repeats with the onboard filter, which is taken from the MS20 synth and is a personal favorite of mine. There is no resonance control to the filter but it's set at a very tasty level. This makes for a very creative sonic landscape. The internal oscillator is a saw waveform and can be modulated with either a triangle or a square LFO. Matched with the delay, this delivers some very spacey and interesting sounds. I would say the Monotron Delay is best suited for external processing and making samples. The ribbon controller doesn't offer any precise control and to get a precise pitch is pretty difficult. The ribbon controller offers continuous control of pitch, so sweeps are possible by running your finger up or down the ribbon. I used mine to make a sample library, incorporating the delay in my sound design as the layering of repeats with the filter and the modulation of the LFO makes for some pretty large sounds. I really like how fast the LFO goes. It goes into the audio range for analog-FM style tones. The real magic of this synth comes with the automation of the parameters, delivering hands on motion to otherwise static sounds. A vast array of sonic textures can VERY easily be coaxed out of this with little prior experience. The Monotron Delay delivers wild sonic textures that are at home in any electronic music track looking for something to give it some grimy analog grit.

Lots of great and strange sounds possible.

I'm not a fantastic keyboard player, and you don't need to be for one of these. This isn't an instrument as much as a weird noise generator and sound effect processor. First off, it ONLY runs on batteries, no option for a wall plug, which really sucks, because it necessitates changing the batteries before any serious use. Second, due to its analog nature, the sound is basically completely different every time you turn it on, and it takes 5-10 minutes for it to stabilize enough to be useful. My next point is the "aux in" jack. This is basically made so you can put funny sounds over the music on your iPod, but I decided to get stupid with it, and through using a lot of adapters, ran my Casio keyboard into this, and then out of the Monotron into a 15-watt solid state keyboard amp. The sound was absolutely drenched in reverb, though the delay controls on both the keyboard and Monotron were off, and the amp didn't have a reverb function. This unit is unstable and will keep you guessing and second-guessing your confidence in it. It's only solid use is for making weird noises, maybe making intro tapes or processing samples for basement/Mac DJs. This can't be used effectively for serious music production.

This little synth is great! The combination of knobs on this product provide so many possibilities: they yield spacey soundscapes, those great building moments that you hear in progressive electronic music, plenty of sound effects, and, when the "INT." knob is only barely on, synth sounds that allow the Korg to be played like a regular instrument (you can operate the ribbon like a keyboard using the side of your finger and sliding from note to note). The only downside is that the higher notes ring out much louder than the lower ones, so it is harder to play intervals across octaves and some of the effects render these notes into mere quiet grumbling. Normally, synthesizers are pretty expensive, yet one this versatile is only $50! I had to wait several weeks for mine on back order, so pick one up while you can.

All the transaction went so well! the delivery was fast and on time, i wrote an e-mail asking for doubts, and i received a response very quickly! I recommend to buy here! So happy with the purchase.